TL;DR

TL;DR or tl;dr, short for "too long; didn't read", is Internet slang, often used to introduce a summary of an online post or news article. It is also used as an informal interjection, commenting that a block of text has been ignored due to its length.

History

The phrase dates from at least 2002. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its earliest known use was in a 2002 message posted on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.video.nintendo. In 2009, the term appeared in Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined, a publication based on online crowdsourced slang database Urban Dictionary. Also in 2009, it was listed as a slang acronym in David Pogue's tweet anthology World According to Twitter. The term was added to the now-defunct Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2013.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Oxford Dictionaries Online quarterly update: new words added to oxforddictionaries.com today". OxfordWords blog. Oxford University Press. 28 August 2013. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. TL;DR, abbrev.: 'too long didn't read': used as a dismissive response to a lengthy online post, or to introduce a summary of a lengthy post.
  2. 1 2 "tl;dr". Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ↑ "tl;dr". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. OCLC 1032680871.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Dave. "What does TLDR mean? Understanding the internet shorthand for lengthy text and its various uses". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  5. ↑ Peckham, Aaron (1 January 2009). Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-8892-5.
  6. ↑ Pogue, David (15 August 2009). World According to Twitter. Running Press. ISBN 978-1-60376-173-4.